For the ones interested: if you use alias for numbering your activities, you can easily 'automate' it from the project browser, using the auto-numbering feature (right click on a package: Advanced/Apply auto naming to elements).So you can use the easy ordering feature first inside the project browser using the green up and down arrows and then let EA number your activities (or what you want) accordingly.For verification, you can show the alias names instead of the activity names on your diagram as well. Doubleclick in your diagram (or select your diagram in project browser and right-click to properties), and then select in the diagram tab 'use alias when available' and you can verify the numbering at a glance

it would be useful to see the processing time split up throughout the simulation in so called 'Value adding' and 'Non value adding' timing. This roughly comes down to the same categories as referred to in the EA help as 'Duration' and 'Lag Time' respectively and keeping these separate would be sufficient for the purpose. Lowering the 'Non value adding' time is one of the lean techniques to optimise your process, as part of the VSM (Value Stream Mapping). The 'Non value adding' time will typically exist in stock places in between activities. In VSM there is a symbol for that, in BPMN not really, but here we can work around, eg like using a different activity.Alternatively it would make sense to enable also 'time' parameters to be hooked on the sequenceflow.

Showing these VA and NVA values in the activity (and sequenceflow) on the BPMN diagram itself would be a bonus.

Hope you can work with this and this was entered in the right channel here. If not we can discuss offline through email or phone.

However still a question on the composition of the timing: one can enter different parameters like TransferTime, QueueTime, WaitTime ... some are 'Value adding', others are 'Non-Value adding'. For Value Stream Mapping it is essential to keep the difference between both when simulating a total flow. However in the BPSim simulator, all of them seem to be added to 'ProcessingTime'.Is there a way to still see the contribution of each Timing composition in the simulation of a total flow?

Think indeed that's where we are in EA what's interpretation of the order of flowcharts is concerned. Still strange anyhow that they would take 'natural order', while there are different options to indicate the order like put in my initial post :-/

Pitty that not one of these is followed to export the different steps in a flow. Using the 'alias' field is the workaround but making things more complicated than it should be

thanks for your valuable feedback.The trick with the alias is for sure a way out, thanks for that HarryPlotter.Still wondering, since EA does know the interconnection between all elements, why it is not following this as the order between elements, even in just a straight flow where there are no split.Of course in case of split, there can be several 'solutions' like Geert is stating, but I see EA not following one of these. Even in just a straight flow, the logical order is not used.

Currently the output seems just randomly, so the EA programmer has used some random generator to program the order of export? That's why I was wondering about the 'default' order...

Q, what do you mean with a Cockburn schema and how would you apply it to solve my issue?

I've been struggling to get just a simple CVS export from activities and events from a BPMN flow diagram. It is actually a list of the steps in the process, but should be in the appropriate order !So my question is: how is the order of the export determined by default?How could I easily influence the order of the export?Why is it not just simply in line with the relationships already made in the diagram and/or project browser?

Now it seems you can get 4 different sequences out of EA: - order in the diagram - diagram view (order by connecting activities etc)- order in the diagram - list view (order influenced by filtering in columns but no clue how to manage such that it is the flow of the activities...)- order in the project browser (order by using the arrows up/down)- order in the export file (cannot influence and no relation with any of the ordering mechanisms above [smiley=sad.gif] )